Review: Simple Green

Just a quick post today to cast my critical eye over Simple Green. This product is cited again and again by gamers as the most hassle free way of stripping old models of their paint.

Intro

Commonly found in most stores in the US (so I'm told), Simple Green is a non-toxic household cleaner, used for cleaning things such as baths and kitchen surfaces. It came to my attention around the time I decided I wanted to strip all my old Praetorian figures and re-paint them. On all the major 40k forums I could find at least person extolling its virtues and so, not wanting to risk my rare Praetorians with anything less than the best, I tried to find some.

Living in the UK this was easier said than done...

It would appear that Simple Green is simply not sold in UK stores, so I ended up ordering a 1L bottle direct from their website for the costly sum of £10. Be sure to get the household stuff not the industrial strength, or you may well melt your models...and your hands.

Application

Using Simple Green really couldn't be easier, first find a container like a cup or bowl, pop in your miniatures and then pour in enough Simple Green to cover all the models. There is no mixing or watering down required, just pour the Green straight in.

Now this does mean that you can use up that 1L bottle fairly quickly. It just about managed to cover up the 56 Praetorians I had to strip, but if your looking at doing whole armies and you live in the UK, it could get a bit costly. But more on that later.

1 Platoon, 5th Praetorian Regiment of Foot...having a their group bath...

After this you simply have to let the Simple Green to work its magic. Leave your submerged models to sit for at least 24hrs. Don't worry about leaving them for longer, some of mine sat submerged for over a week and there was no damage to the metal models. I can't guarantee that plastic would be similarly unaffected, but to be honest I don't think this stuff has the power to really corrode plastic.

On point worth mentioning is the smell. Though not entirely unpleasant, it is very strong and you are going to want to store your models somewhere out of the way, like the garden shed or garage.

After leaving the models to sit for at least 24hrs, run a sink full of hot soapy water and grab and old toothbrush.

You can see the paint already peeling off the model before the scrubbing even starts

Take your model and dunk it into the soapy water and getting scrubbing with that toothbrush. It should be the work of a few seconds to get off the majority of the paint, a little longer to get into the crevasses.

And there you have it, done and ready to be repainted!

It took me less than 5 minutes to do the 4 miniatures below, and I had all 56 of them scrubbed down within the hour.

So to summarise...

Pros

Easy to use

Non-toxic

Does the job!

Cons

Cost & Availability in the UK

The Smell!

Can irritate some people's skin (so I'm told)

Since using Simple Green I have discovered that standard household Dettol can achieve the same effect in the same way, so I would recommend UK readers to go with that, for cost reasons. However, if you live in the USofA you might as well go green!

So a great product for stripping miniatures, with only the UK cost being prohibitive for me. Using Oni's great rating system I award Simple Green:

4 Golden Aqulias out of 5

Thanks for reading, I'll leave you with one more before and after shot:

Product Review: GW Spray Gun

Concept

As I'm sure you all know, one of Games Workshop's most recent releases is its Spray Gun. Designed to allow you to spray your models with GW Foundation Paint, the spray gun is supposed to give you greater flexibility in your undercoating, and cut down on painting time (something that everybody can get behind!). After an initial release and recall in mid summer, the product has been fixed and has been on sale for a while. Yours truly picked one up last week. What follows is a fairly simple review/tutorial, designed to give you all some basic impressions of this piece of kit.

Now some of you may remember many years back when GW had a wide range of colour primers, not just today's Black and White. This cut down on painting time dramatically, but also led to a number of armies that were just primed in the relevant colour and left. I can remember doing this myself with an IG armoured company (the shame of it!). Indeed I was told by one GW Red Shirt that this was part of the reason why the other colours were discontinued. Whatever the reason, I was annoyed to find the cans were gone when I got back into 40k. Is the new spray gun the solution? 

I've never used any form of spray gun before, which is part of the reason I paid the £23 for the GW version (£18 for the Gun & £5 for a can of propellant).  I've read that there are better & more cost effective models out there, but I figured that the GW version would be more 'noobie' friendly. I realise its far from rocket science, but I find that if I can get something wrong, I often do! 

Contents

So what do you actually get for you money?

Well, its all fairly straightforwardly packaged and comes with the following:

1. Spray Gun. Yes its shaped like a flamer. Do I really care? No I don't. 

2. Propellant Valve Pin (as well as an adaptor for the Propellant Can).

3. Paint Container.

4. Air Hose.

5. Propellant Can. Just to stress that this comes separately from the rest of the kit.

As I had hoped there is also a fairly in depth instruction manual that breaks the process down nicely. You should also check out GW's own 'How To' for the spray gun. Well worth a look. 

GW's Instruction Booklet

Use/Tutorial 

One of the main quires I had with the GW Spray Gun was over using normal paints. All the promotion material talks about using the new Foundation Paints and Washes, but mentions nothing about using normal paint. Almost to stress the point, the paint container has a set of guides to show what mixtures of foundation paint and water are required for good results. There is no info on normal paint. 

Guide for foundation paint:  Fill the container with foundation paint up to one of the marks on the left. Then top up with water until the next highest mark on the right. 

After some internet research I read that it would be fine to use normal paint in the spray gun, and that only a few drops of water were needed to top it up. So I duly whipped out my Dark Angels green and gave it a go. Be sure to give the paint a good mixing with a matchstick or similar. 

Below we see the spray kit mostly put together. It is as simple as it looks. Screw the adapter on to the can (leaving the valve out, unless you want propellant everywhere) and then attach the air hose. Attach the other end to the 'gun' itself and your almost ready to go!

When in your spraying area you can pop in the valve, by simply screwing it into its hole atop the adaptor. Make sure the hose is securely attached at both ends first. 

You should hear the gas as its released from the can. Do make sure the adaptor is screwed on tight, or you will spend ten minutes wondering why the spray gun wasn't working, like I did!

Below you can see the paint pot in its position on the spray gun. It is a good idea to test out your paint mixture first. If its comes on too thick, go back and add some water. If its too thin then add more paint. Simple! You can also adjust the flow of paint by turning the spray gun's Paint Cap.

My spray gun's first victim was to be my Dark Angels Rhino, hence the need to use DA Green as opposed to foundation paint. When using normal paint, it is important that you still prime the model first, either with a normal spray or foundation paints. This helps the following paints to stick to the model's surface. 

So, following GW's advice and using short sweeping motions, I sprayed away. And uttered some pretty horrible words straight after. It would my appear my mixture was all wrong, and the paint came on a bit thick...

This mistake can however be put down to my inexperience, as opposed to any fault with the Spray Gun. And, as it turns out, once I left the model to dry properly the result was not that bad. 

The coat is patchy in a few places but on the whole it is smooth and will give me a good basis to work from, which was the aim! 

We have also proved that you can happily use normal paints in the GW spray gun. With some trial and error...

Tips

The only major advice I can offer is to ensure that the paint is of the right consistency before you commit it to a model. This means testing, testing and testing! Don't allow your self to rush it like I did! I was lucky with the Rhino, but I easily could have ended up making the eventual paint job harder or even ruining the model.

I would also draw your attention to the Propellant can. Try to keep this as warm as possible, within reason (Remember its a compressed can and will react explosively to extreme heat!). As the can is used it will loose pressure and draw in the cold from its surroundings. This will eventually stop the flow of propellant. If this happens, place it somewhere warm and try again later.

Conclusion

On reflection I do like the GW spray gun. 

Admittedly its not cheap, but it is cheerful and straightforward to use, especially if like me you have no prior experience. The kit seems robust and is easy enough to clean. The paint pot with its markings for foundation paint is also a neat idea. The less guess work involved the better! I will be testing these markings out soon, and will report back to you if they are no good.

My only real criticism is the propellant. I can already hear mine running out after just the Rhino which, at £5 a pop, is not great. I am unsure if the adaptor would be suitable for other makes of propellant but its something I intend to look into. If I can find a cheaper alternative then that would be a major plus for the spray gun.

At the end of the day if you want a simple way to quickly base coat your troops or tanks then I can recommend the spray gun. Its robust, simple and does exactly what it says on the tin.

Rating: 4/5

As usual I hope some of you out there found this a useful/interesting read! Does anybody have their own experience to add?

Painting Power Weapons

So, continuing with the theme of trying out new techniques with this army I did some work before tackling the Terminator Sergeant's power weapon. 

In the past my Imperial Guard power weapons have involved nothing more complicated than a coat of Enchanted Blue, hardly something I wanted to desecrate the Deathwing by doing - these are the Emperor's finest and deserve a good lick of paint and some effort!

After doing a number of searches on the Internet and scouring my codexs for simple power weapons techniques (as usual not having a clue where to start myself!) I stumbled across this blog entry at The Painting Corps. While it links to a number of helpful articles I really liked the method Grey_Death used and decided to give it ago myself. I also managed to find the collection that Grey_Death found the technique in, which funnily enough also contains some well painted Deathwing. Its well worth a look and can be seen here. 

So anyway, here was the challenge, to try and recreate this:

So, settling on a purifying blue scheme I assembled my colours:

 

Using the fine new Captain model from the Assault on Black Reach as a test model I managed to churn out this: 

Not bad for a first attempt I thought! Oh, and be looking out for this model on the blog in the future, I have great plans for parts of it...

So now, on to the Terminator Sergeant. Using the same technique as before I produced this:

To be honest the Terminator's sword is a bit sloppier than that of the test model, but I still think it's turned out well enough. It is a really nice contrast to the rest of the colours in the unit - making the power weapon stand out as it should! I've just realised I haven't taken a picture of the reverse side, but its largely the same. 

See below for the paints used and a rough idea of the method. Any comments or criticisms? 

Step 1: Base coat of Necron Abyss.

Step 2: Mix 50% Necron Abyss & 50% Regal Blue - Trying to blend the colours into the base coat, start from about 20% up the length of the sword and paint to the tip. 

Step 3: Regal Blue - Start further up the sword and again try to blend into the previous layer. With so many coats of paint try to keep them thin, or the tip of the sword may resemble a club!

Step 4: Mix 50% Regal Blue & 50% Enchanted Blue - You guessed it, as above just further up the sword.

Step 5: Enchanted Blue Layer.

Step 6: Mix 75% Enchanted Blue & 25% Ice Blue - Keep to the real edges of the blade for this layer.

Step 7: Paint an thin line of Enchanted Blue right the way down the middle of the sword from tip to base. Go over the top part of that line with Ice Blue, allowing it to fade as you reach the deeper parts of the sword. 

Step 8: Use the same technique to produce the 'offshoots' of energy. Use darker mixes of blue the nearer the base you are (e.g. lots of Ice Blue near the tip, hardly any at the bottom). If you want you can do a thin banding of blue on either side of an 'offshoot' - keeping it darker than the offshoot but lighter than the surrounding sword, this creates a nice effect.

Step 9: Highlight the very edges and tip of the sword with a mix of Ice Blue and Skull White.

Step 10: Hunt the Fallen...

Dark Angels: Faces

So the Deathwing continue to be a long hard slog. However, I am enjoying to process (mostly) and I am really learning and developing my painting skills. A prime example of this has been my recent attempt at painting the face of my (soon to be) Deathwing Standard Bearer.

Despite having a large Imperial Guard army I have never really attempting painting a detailed face, considering it to be far beyond my abilities. However, determined not to ruin my Deathwing paint job I 'manned up' and started to conduct a few tests on some old marines, using the flesh paints I had available.

My first attempt, as expected, was less than pleasing! Effectively making the process up as I went along, I started with a white undercoat and then applied Dark Flesh. I then tried to build up highlights using Dwarf Flesh and then Elf Flesh.

Lt. Dan, proudly displaying his 1st degree burns. One wonders where his hand went...

My second try was more pleasing. A white undercoat was followed by a further coat of Tallarn Flesh Foundation Paint (leaving the eyes and teeth white). Highlights of Dwarf Flesh and Elf Flesh followed as in my previous attempt. Apologies for the poor picture quality.

I found this a quick and simple method that produced good results. So, quite nervously I have to admit, I took my paint brush to a model I actually cared about. I've got to say I've impressed myself with what I managed:

So there you have it, my first detailed face. Developing your skills is one of the great joys of this hobby and I feel I've really made some progress with this model. The only problem with getting better is that you feel a need to go back and re-paint all your old figures! I have about 150 poorly painted guardsmen looking at me with envious eyes. But that is a project for next year!

Any further tips or hints would be appreciated.